HEllo Mike,

On Thu 2011-Oct-27 21:22, MIKE ROBERTS (1:261/1381) wrote to Matt Munson:

-> The little stray has a home now.  At least for a brief moment he was loved
MR> and
-> he does have a home now.

MR> So  Sad, but touching Matt... And God bless those people.. I had a
MR> similar experience as I was working one day, and I absolutely could
MR> not stop. But I must have cried for almost an hour, driving and
MR> thinking of the poor dog I saw get hit and left for dead. I wanted
MR> to stop so bad, but couldn't. This poor dog was fortunate at least
MR> to the effect that she could and did stop. Tugs at the heart
MR> strings.

IF anybody has messages going back to 2007 in this echo
you've seen my tale of how we adopted Roxy, our first
Rottweiler off the streets of NEw ORleans.

Roxy was purchased as a puppy by a street dealer, to be his
bluff.  sHe was with him when he was gunned down in the
usual turf wars that happen among such folks.

Roxy went to his cousin, who fought pit bulls.  Roxy refused to fight, so he
gave her her "freedom" and turned her out on the mean streets of the city.

My lady and I managed fie apartment buildings in inner city
NEw ORleans at the time.  THese were part of a federal
program, and of course were animal free zones.

My office and recording studio was in our home, the complex
offices elsewhere.  My lady did the bulk of day to day
management, I mainly helped out with some maintenance chores around the place,
and operated my own business.  HEnce I was home a lot during the day.  Roxy
got whatever food she could scrounge or beg, her sources of water were puddles
along the curb.  During the afternoons while working at my desk I'd
often bring Roxy in, give her clean water to drink, some
leftovers from dinner the night before, or part of my lunch.

Kathy and I saw her get hit by a car, not fatally, only
minor injuries, but it was then that we decided since the
complex was now under a new management company and that
hadn't even been settled yet (we knew her benefits package
was probably by the boards) we'd do a little bit of truth
bending.  After all, you can't refuse the blind man his dog
guide .  Hence, I put a regular harness on Roxy,k and she was well enough
behaved that she could pass as guide dog.
By the time the dust settled with the management company,
here was a clean well groomed ROttweiler that appeared to be trained at one of
the nation's finest guide dog schools,
although she was 10 years old, and had never seen guide work or such a harness
until I strapped one on her.


NEgotiations having failed to recoup Kathy's medical
benefits, let alone none of the others, we moved on, and I
was renting a place across the lake in Slidell, and working
on negotiations to buy it on contract when Katrina struck.
My lady and I were the communications volunteers for
University and Charity hospitals in NEw ORleans, and ROxy
was left outside ona cable, where she could get under the
house for shelter, a dutch oven full of dry dog food left,
another outside where it could catch rain water, and there
was plenty of that.

THis meant she survived the trees crushing the house, and
the resulting house fire when the electricity was
reactivated a week or so later.  I was still arranging to
return to my home from San Antonio when this happened.  Roxy was rescued by a
friend of mine before the humane society
came to put her down, taken to a vet/boarding kennel, given
her shots which were due the week of the storm, and we
retrieved her when we came back to get some of my property
from the hospital radio room, and anything which survived on the property that
was mine after the fire.  SHe lived with
us two years here in Tennessee before succumbing to multiple strokes.  Partial
paralysis and incontinence meant she was
no longer able to really function, so the vet did the
merciful thing.  I stood holding her head as she expired.

A plaster casting of one of her paw prints hangs in our
living room along with a  by 7 picture of her.  We now have
a rott we raised from a pup we got that next summer.

Regards,
           Richard
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 * Origin:  (1:116/901)